Two foreign workers - Subramaniam Shanmuganathan and Ponnan Muthukumar were commended by the SCDF on Friday for their public spiritedness.

The duo received the SCDF Public Spiritedness Awards on Friday for climbing onto a balcony to rescue a toddler.

Speaking to the media at the SCDF headquarters, the two said they were not expecting any reward, and were just happy to be able to save a life.

A video of them saving a baby in Singapore surfaced on local website Alvinology Friday.

In the video taken Thursday, a bawling toddler has its head stuck between the rails of a balcony window, with its body hanging off the ledge.

The foreign worker then came into scene in the video and climbed up the wall to the ledge and got to the baby.

As the baby’s head was stuck, he lifted the baby so that the weight on its head was lessened. A second foreign worker then climbed up the ledge as well to help.

Lifestyle blogger Alvin Lim, editor of the website, said the video was taken by a friend at the scene and he asked for help in identifying this life-saving foreign worker.

According to the blogger, witnesses say that a woman was the first to notice the baby and was the one who asked for help. It appeared that no one was home at that time.

The incident occurred on 23 April afternoon at Jurong East Ave 1, and initially, two other men tried to climb up the ledge but were not strong enough.

The commotion went on until the foreign worker appeared. According to witnesses, he was one of three foreign workers working on road repairs nearby, said Lim.

He added that the (SCDF) arrived on scene five minutes later and managed to free the baby.

 

 -- additional reporting by Lester Nyan